


With Friends Like These...

by Daniscats



Series: The Incredible Story of Captain Shepard and the Love that Saved the Galaxy! Drabbles and Misc [4]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 18:46:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11720301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daniscats/pseuds/Daniscats
Summary: They are just following Shepard's lead here.





	With Friends Like These...

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler Alert! This one-shot jumps ahead of my main story a little bit and as a result, there are revelations about what happens in my main story regarding the current arc. I don't think any of it will come as much of a surprise to my regular readers but I just wanted to give fair warning. If you want to be completely surprised about what happens next in TISOCSATLTSTG (I have never hated my title more;) then you might want to wait to read this one.
> 
> PS: Even though I am trying to complete this month of fanfic challenge, I am still working on my main story and should have another chapter posted shortly. Thanks for reading.

    Shepard was just settling into her Councilor's office (her Councilor's office!, it was almost unbelievable), when she heard the a beep from the QEC terminal in the corner. She stood up and moved in front of it before hitting the button to receive the incoming call from Captain Kaidan Alenko, still the Systems Alliance. She watched as he stood up straight and gave her a smart salute. He appeared to be in a large office likely in Alliance headquarters in Vancouver. 

    "Councilor Shepard. I just wanted to call to offer my congratulations on your win and on your official swearing in by the other Councilors."

    "Thanks Kaidan. And thank you again for your help getting Liara back. I can never thank you enough."

    "You're welcome and you know that I had no choice. Now the Alliance has me still stationed in Sol and I have been tasked with helping to straighten out who in the Alliance was involved in the larger plot and making sure that all junior and senior officers involved are removed from duty and taken into custody. But I am also a Council Spectre and I just wanted to know if you had any other orders, Honorable Councilor."

    Shepard rolled her eyes at his use of the title.

    "I just sat down in my office for the first time. I don't even have datapads and pens yet." Shepard continued earnestly. "But I think the Alliance is right. As an Alliance Officer and as a Spectre, your first task right now should be helping to investigate who else might have been complicit. We need to get the Alliance stabilized so that we can..."

    Suddenly, with a smirk, Kaidan interrupted.

    "Joker..."

    And Kaidan's image disappeared. Shepard looked down at the controls to see if there had been some malfunction. Seeing none, she moved to re-establish the link. Once again, Kaidan came into view, only this time he was laughing and having a hard time keeping himself from bending over.

    "Kaidan. Is there a problem?"

    "No problem, Your Honor." Kaidan laughed again. "I was just following your example on the proper way to interact with Galactic Councilors."

    It finally dawned on Shepard what Kaidan was referring to.

    "Very funny. Just remember, I had good reason to do what I did back then."

    "Of course! I would never do something like that unless I had good reason too. Joker..."

    Once again, the image disappeared from view. Shepard didn't even bother to try to hail them again as she started chuckling to herself.

 

 

 

    A few hours later and Shepard was already up to her eyeballs in paperwork. Oriana kept dropping off datapads on her desk that she said contained the most important briefs on what she needed to know in order to get started. She had been reading for hours. The afternoon promised to be no better with informal meetings with the other Councilors, introductions to the staff and various members of the various embassies as well as a meeting with her own staff. Shepard was thrilled when she heard the QEC beep again, providing her with an excuse to take a break from the monotonous briefings.

    She hit the button on the QEC and Tali's unmasked face came into view with Garrus and Leela standing behind her. Tali took Leela from Garrus and faced her towards Shepard.

    "Say hi to Auntie Shepard, Sweetie."

    The baby kind of gave a little smile and a wave. At least Shepard wanted to believe that was true. Shepard smiled back and started talking in baby talk.

    "Hello Little Leela. Who's the cutest wittle girl in the whole universe?"

    Leela, for her part, seemed to lose interest in the holographic image in front of her and instead started grabbing her mother's necklace.

    "It's great to see that you guys made it home safe and sound and that the time away from Rannoch did not make it so you couldn't go without your suit again, Tali."

    Tali waved away Shepard's concerns with her free hand.

    "I was pretty sick during the trip home but what can you do?"

    "We heard that you won the election", Garrus interjected, "and we just wanted to call to congratulate you on being confirmed by the Council today. I bet you are more than a little busy."

    "It's been a long day already and it's about to get longer this afternoon. You would not believe all the procedures that I have to learn. Not to even mention any specific policies or legislation that...

    Suddenly, Tali started giggling at she looked at Garrus who wiggled his mandibles as he reached for the device in front of him. In an instant, the images in front of her disappeared and she was staring at empty space for a moment before she stopped speaking to herself. It took Shepard another moment to realize what was happening...again.

    "Goddamn it!"  

 

 

    Shepard threw herself into her chair. To say it had been a long day was an understatement. Despite the fact that Shepard had been sworn in early that morning, the nocturnal cycle on the Presidium had already begun by the time she got back to her office after an afternoon and evening full of introductions and meetings. Even Oriana had already left for the day and Shepard wanted nothing more than to go home. She grabbed her bag, locked her terminal and was headed for the door when she heard the beep from the QEC in the corner.

    "Crap." Shepard threw her bag back on her desk and walked over to see that the call was from Wrex. She really was exhausted and so not in the mood for this. Did he know what time it was on the Citadel? How could he think she would even still be here? She hit the button and braced herself.

    "Hi Wrex. I'm a Counselor now so why don't you just get this over with and hang up on me right now so that I can finally go home?"

    "What are you talking about Shepard? Why would I hang up on you when I just called you?"

    "You really don't know? The others didn't set you up to do this?"

    "Do what? What others?"

    "Never mind, Wrex. It's been a long day. What's up?"

    "I just wanted to talk to you again about sponsoring the krogan for a seat on the Council."

    "And you waited until the end of my first day before you started bugging me about it." Shepard let out a tired laugh. "I appreciate your restraint."

    "After what we did for the war effort and the peace that we've maintained since then, I think we deserve it."

    "And I've already told you, I think all the major races should have a seat on the Council. There's no reason why every race with more than a few billion citizens and with colonies on more than one planet shouldn't have a seat. Without one and those citizens and those worlds become second-class...

    Wrex interrupted with his deep rumble of a laugh before his image disappeared. Despite the fact that the connection had already been cut, Shepard could swear that she heard Wrex's laugh all the way from Tuchanka.    

  

 


End file.
